New Delhi: In September last year, then UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav visited Ghaziabad to inaugurate the Ala Hazrat Haj House on the banks of the river Hindon. This is the second major government guest house for pilgrims to be constructed in Uttar Pradesh, apart from the one in Lucknow. On Thursday, officials are scurrying to ready another plot of land in Ghaziabad for another CM. This time, UP CM Yogi Adityanath will lay the foundation stone of a guest house for Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims instead of a Haj House.
Meanwhile, the Haj House, not so far away, has been lying unused since September 2016 due to a stay ordered by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Previous governments neglected tourism, says UP Govt
Scheduled to be built at a cost of Rs 50 crore, the Kailash Mansarovar Guest House will be able to house 500 pilgrims. It will be built over an area of 8,125 square metres and will have an adjacent garden on an additional 1,000 square metres. UP Tourism Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi, while speaking to News 18, hailed this as a “necessary step” and lauded the CM for clearing the path for construction.
“I don’t see this as something very novel, I see this as something necessary. I am glad the CM cleared the construction so soon. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is one of the most arduous journeys undertaken by pilgrims anywhere. In fact, many people don’t even clear the physical test to embark on the journey. The state government can do this much to ensure that their journey becomes a little bit easier,” said.
She denied that there was any “saffron agenda” behind this move. “The Guest House is not being constructed by tearing down a Haj House. It is not even being built by diverting funds from one. We are not helping one community at the cost of another.”
Lashing out at previous governments, Joshi added, “Unfortunately, previous governments have neglected tourism. These facilities for pilgrims, of all faiths, should have been put in place much earlier. They never branded UP Tourism properly. Other states, which have a lot less to offer to tourists than us, have done a much better job of building their brand and earning much more revenue. However, the current government is committed to overhauling tourism in the state.”
Legal tangles
The Ala Hazrat Guest House in Ghaziabad, while complete, is lying unused. This is because of an NGT order disallowing construction in flood plains and lakes. Akash Vashishta, an environmentalist who moved the NGT against the Haj House, said, “I learnt that the Haj House was built on the Hindon floodplains. In the revenue records, the land is classified as ‘Jheel’ (lake). As per NGT rules, construction is not allowed on water bodies. However, the government at the time went ahead and constructed the Haj House there anyway. The court has no asked both us and the government to produce original revenue records.”
When the time came to find land for the Kailash Mansarovar Guest House, the Yogi Government also chose a spot on the floodplains. “They knew that there was a petition and yet, they chose to build the guest house near the location of the Haj House. It was only much later, this Monday, that they decided to shift the location of the Kailash Mansarovar Guest House from the floodplains to another location in Indirapuram,” Vashishta said.
Spiritual, religious tourism a priority for UP
According to Joshi, the UP government’s priority in the tourism sector will be on promoting “religious tourism” across the state. “UP has a lot to offer to pilgrims of all faiths. It is a shame that they do not have enough facilities yet. The current state government will make this a priority. From Mathura to Ayodhya to Varanasi, we will facilitate easy travel to religious spots. We are building the Krishna Circuit and the Buddhist Circuit for this purpose. UP government has a lot of things, such as helicopter darshan, planned for such spots,” she said.
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